China dispatched over 40 warplanes to join eight surveillance vessels in trying to prevent a flotilla of Japanese nationalists from landing on the disputed Diaoyutai Islands on April 23, according to a Japanese media report.

Previous foreign reports had only mentioned that the simultaneous presence of eight Chinese maritime surveillance vessels in the region were the most since tensions over the uninhabited island chain escalated last September.

....pressure is on.

UPDATE: China has now officially declared the Senkakus a "core interest" (link)(NHK):

Chunying made the comment after General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Tokyo said that Chinese officials repeatedly told him during his visit to Beijing earlier in the week that the Senkakus are "one of China's core interests," the report said.

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5 comments:

And if Japan never intends to use them they should just give them away.

Japan's SDF and USFJ should hold some drills that include these islands. Let's see if China will send planes in the middle of a joint exercise. Or if Chinese boatswill try to prevent a landing on the islands by joint forces.

"Mainland" tries to hit fly and tiger by one push. If there is the different "mainland" export area - it could be a "wise push". But nowadays "mainland" is weak as "mainland" can't feed 3 000 000 000 people.... a game "on nerves" for Taiwan, but not Japan.

An Indian official quoted by the Associated Press news agency said Chinese troops had strayed 10km (six miles) into Indian territory on 15 April and put up tents in the Depsang valley in Ladakh in eastern Kashmir.

China dismissed reports of the incursion on Monday as media speculation.

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